Luke Clanton, right, huddles and prays with his parents and caddy before starting his round Thursday at the ISCO Championship. (Larry Vaught Photo)
Before watching him play Thursday I knew that 20-year-old amateur Luke Clanton was a special talent on the golf course.
He was the first amateur since 1957 to post back-to-back top 10 finishes on the PGA Tour since 1957 and last week was second in the John Deere Classic. He won three straight college tournaments this year, was a first team All-American and then tied for 41st in the U.S. Open.
The Florida State junior came into the ISCO Championship at Champions at Keene Trace outside Nicholasville as one of the hottest names in the field.
He got off to a great start Thursday with three birdies in his first five holes but had four bogeys and three birdies over his final 13 holes to finish with a 2-under par 70 — nine strokes behind leader Pierceson Cody and tied for 84th place going into Friday’s second round.
With the low scoring expected to continue due to the hot, dry weather, Clanton needs a much better round today just to survive the 36-hole cut.
I’ll admit I am pulling for Clanton to do that and more. He already seems almost too good to be true by retaining his amateur status, bypassing prize money and planning on returning to Florida State to chase a national championship. That would be like a top five NFL or NBA draft pick electing to stay in school rather than turning pro to cash in big financially.
He was homeschooled until high school and his father worked three jobs to help finance his son’s golf and his mother is a flight attendant. Luke Clanton even had a U.S. Open watch party at his house when he was 10 years old.
However, I became an even bigger Clanton fan Thursday before he hit his first shot Thursday. I watched him huddle with his mother, Rhonda, and father, David, along with his caddy and pray before he went to the first tee. They had their arms around each other and offered their prayers. After the prayer, Clanton and his mother exchanged a nifty dap up that she had no trouble with because she said she had been doing it for years.
Same with the prayer. His mother told me her son does that before every round and does it near the first tee in hopes others will see and understand how important his faith is to him.
It was also fun to see David Clanton taking photos and videos of his son not for social media purposes but to send to family — Luke Clanton has two older sisters — and friends not in Kentucky for the tournament.
Luke even laughed when I asked his dad if he took care of his son’s social media and shook his head in disbelief even though he was going to be teeing off in just a few minutes.
The Florida State golfer, who is No. 3 in the World Golf amateur rankings, emphasized to the starter that he was an amateur to make sure he was introduced that way.
His mother said he had been raised to be “polite and courteous” and when sees children with good manners on a flight she’s working, she makes sure to compliment the parents.
Clanton is playing here on a sponsor’s exemption and also has one for the 3M Championship later this month in Minnesota.
